WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

Piledriving action.

The last wrestling game that I played was WWF on the Gameboy. The superstars were brilliant, you could choose Hulk Hogan (before he was Hollywood Hogan then went good, then bad, then good, then bad....), Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, Mr Perfect - all legends of the game.

So you may be able to tell that it's been a while. I've managed to keep up to date by paying a little bit of attention now and again so at least I was aware of who the superstars were in this 3D wrestling offering from THQ.

You start off with a choice of mode and unfortunately there are only 2 modes. Not to worry though, as you still get pretty much everything you could want in a wrestling game. In career mode you can create your own wrestler and take them all the way to the dizzy heights of WWE champion. And in exhibition mode you can pick from one of 11 wrestlers or even use your created wrestler to have an exhibition match.

The exhibition match allows you to wrestle in either a RAW venue or Smackdown venue and you can customise the type of match you are going to play. All the options are there - regular, hardcore (where you can use objects), ECW extreme, Iron Man, submission, ultimate submission, hell in a cell and last man standing. Each of these match types are explained in the help section but those familiar with the WWE world should be familiar with this.

The career mode is where the game really shines though, as you can customise your wrestler pretty well. I went for a Hulk Hoganesque wrestler with my skin tone and a white goatee. Well, I think he looks cool. You then get a number of types of wrestler that they can start off as, such as a submissions expert or showman or muscle man. This will determine their starting statistics. As is fairly obvious, win matches and you get points to spend on you stats. You can let the AI autospend it for you or you can customise it yourself, perhaps picking an area you are weak in and spending most points there.

So how does the game play? Well, it takes a little getting used to. The graphics are pretty nice 3D polygons but the rendering has meant that I think the animation has suffered a little in the speed department. Maybe it was my phone but button presses took a little time to register and move animations seemed a bit off the pace. Then again my phone is now getting old.

Your character can perform an array of moves and throws, but unfortunately I didn't seem to find a kick button. There is a light and strong attack button (press 5 or hold 5) as well as a grab button (1). From the grab you can press any of the directions to do a move or hold any direction to do a throw. Double tapping starts a run and pressing 5 in the middle of the run will perform a clothesline, spear or elbow drop depending how your opponent is situated. So a good tactic for me was a throw then a quick bounce off the ropes and elbow drop for some decent damage.

Damage is represented by the red bar and the lower it goes the more chance you have of getting pinned for the 3 count. You can throw someone off if you press 5 quickly as you get pinned. In fact 5 is used for pretty much everything as it's a reversal key as well. If your opponent tries to hit, throw or jump at you, some words will flash up on the screen to press 5 to reverse. If you're quick enough and press it within the fairly short timeframe you will perform a reversal which looks pretty cool. Be wary though as the AI can reverse you sometimes.

In addition to the damage bar there is a combo bar which fills up blue the more hits you land. When it's full and flashing you can perform your finishing move by pressing 1 (the grab button). This will then show your finishing move from a few different angles and afterwards is a good time for the pin. There's one more thing with the 5 key too, if you get a sleeper hold on someone (grab from behind) or submission from their back, a little meter pops up and you have to repeatedly stop the meter in the middle by pressing 5. Your opponent does the same to escape. Whoever gets closest to the middle fills up a white bar slowly and when it's full you will either win by submission (if you're the attacker) or escape the submission (if you're pinned). It sounds complex but it's really simple. The only thing you need is a good reaction time.

One big drawback I found is that often when doing moves near the edge of the ring, instead of pinning the opponent when I wanted to, pressing 1 (which is supposed to pin) would result in me leaving the ring (which it does if you are near the edge). Also, if I wasn't really close to the opponent pressing 1 would result in a grab. The developers should have made it that holding 1 automatically goes to pin as at the moment you have to move near to your downed opponent before pressing it and this can be annoying and time consuming (they often get up when you get close).

Still this is a minor gripe in what's become a very enjoyable and addictive game. There are more features like taunts, recovery and even some trash talking and suprise matchups just like the real soap opera that is WWE. You can even get random weapons from under the ring.

All in all once I got the hang of the wrestling part I was hooked. I'm already intercontinental champion having beat down Chris Jericho and HBK and now I have my sights set on HHH for the title. In the trash talking world of WWE I guess I have to say "Watcha gonna do brother when my career created wrestler runs wild over you!". Excellent fun even if you don't like WWE. If I had to make one other improvement it would be the ability to play a friend with your career created wrestler over bluetooth. Otherwise the game hits all the right notes.